Providence Cyclocross Festival - 10/10/2009 and 10/11/2009

Race reports
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Bruce
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Race Reports for Providence?

Post by Bruce »

That's a loud silence out there.

I was there early Saturday and saw Todd, Chris, ML, Todd P, John P and Dorian in the BM 35+. Todd was sitting second wheel after the start but got a flat. Time for some tubulars! Chris Pare finished 10th I beleive and Mike Lowry was not far behind. John Plump (does he wear bandana under helmet?) and Todd P rode strong in the middle and Dorian had a big smile on his face. I did the Mens 4 race and started in the back row round 80th. I ended up 38th so I passed ovr 40 people and was still picking people off at the end. Felt good about that. I planned to double up in the M35+ but I went to my car for a recovery drink and when I got back to the start the race had left. Brilliant.

Almost the same course as Nats '05 without the six inches of snow. Still the course was pretty slick and even tho they said about 1/3 was on pavement, it was pretty techncial -- I was off my bike 5x per lap. I'm sure it dried out as the day went on.

How did the rest of the racing go?
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taudep
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Providence Cyclocross Festival - 10/10/2009 and 10/11/2009

Post by taudep »

Results are up at CrossResults.comL
Day #1: http://www.crossresults.com/?n=results&sn=r&raceID=776
Day #2: http://www.crossresults.com/?n=results&sn=r&raceID=777

This was my first time at this race. And I quickly learned that this was the nationals course from several years ago. What a spectacular course both days. By far the best CX course I've ever raced on. Loved all the twisty turns, quick ups and downs, and limited long power stretches.

Some highlights of the weekend for me:
1) Had my best start ever on Saturday. I lined up first row, sprinted my but off and was thinking "dang, I didn't get passed by many people." Which is in stark contrast to Gloucester where I started front row and proceeded to get passed by 40 people by the time we were 200 meters up the road. I stayed up near the front (top 15ish or so) until I made a wrong turn into the pits on the first lap. Lesson learned: maybe arrive at race venue early enough to preride the course once.
2) Had my best ever lap on Sunday, another front row start. I gave up a couple more positions, and for not pre-riding the course (I hadn't thought about learning any lessons by Sunday morning, yet) I pretty much took good lines and was in the top 20 (barely) after the first lap. I was then expecting to race only three laps (because that's all we did in our 30 minute race on Saturday), and I was demoralized after I didn't hear the bell lap after lap 2. I spent all my juice early and gave up at least 5 positions on the last lap. Lesson learned: more time on the bike, less time carbo-loading with beer.
3) With all the little turns and quick ups-and-downs, it because quite apparent that my summer spent mountain biking was time well spent training for cyclocross. Lesson learned: keep mountain biking.
4) Chicken man. If you weren't there, someone in a full-chicken outfit raced 1.5 laps with the Cat 3s. Pretty funny. Lesson learned: ease into racing the Cat 3 race (some day) by concealing dead last position with funny costume.

Saw lots of MRCers doing well. I think Chris got 5th on Sunday, and Todd S. 10th, and Lowry did well finishing in the top 15.

That's about it for now. I have lots of photos from Sunday that I'll post up later in the week.
I'm 20PoundSkull at cyclowhat.com.
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taudep
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Re: Race Reports for Providence?

Post by taudep »

Ahh...we were both posting at the same time! I started another thread.

P.S. Bruce, I just merged our two different race report topics to keep one steady stream going.
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pace21
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Re: Providence Cyclocross Festival - 10/10/2009 and 10/11/2009

Post by pace21 »

Executive Summary: Great weekend, great venue, great course, great weather.

By far the most fun course I’ve done, with Sunday marginally better than Saturday IMO. The course features I didn’t like about Sat (the stairs, the crazy run-up) were all gone on Sunday, replaced with some neat technical sections (the “bowl” drop in, the off camber section in the middle before the fast barriers, and the technical up-and-down section near Start/Finish. Sunday was clearly faster than Saturday, as the course was mostly dry at the start of the 4 Masters, and there was a nice ribbon of hard packed dirt in most of the grassy areas. With the course a little shorter on Sunday, that added up to 4 laps on Sunday vs 3 laps on Saturday.

Saturday I felt great, had a 3rd row start, but based on Todd S.’s recommendation, I started all the way on the right and shot up the outside, getting to 2nd or 3rd wheel into the first turn. From there I moved up to first for a couple turns, then settled into 2nd for a lap or so before things started going bad. I dropped my chain, not once but twice, and each time I lost 4-5 spots. My “Third Eye Chain Watcher” didn’t do a real good job of keeping my chain on, but it did a great job at making it difficult to put the chain back on once it was off…. I picked off a couple spots towards the end and finished 10th. I was happy with the result.

Sunday was clearly a much faster start, and with the same starting grid position I used the same technique, I still made it into the top 3 going into the first turn, but it was much more difficult. I settled into 2nd position and planned to stay there for a while. At this point I made my tactical mistake for the day. I knew the guy in first, he rides in a club with my brother-in-law, I knew he was fast because he won Gloucester going away last Sunday, but for some reason I felt compelled to try to hang with him. I’m sure you all can fill in the rest of the story from your own past experiences – I burned a few too many matches early and paid for it later. I faded some in the middle of the race, got passed by 4 guys, got one of them back on the last lap, and finished 5th. Again, I was very happy with the result, but I can’t help but think I had a top 3 in me if I rode within myself in the early part of the race. Oh well, live and learn….

--- Chris
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Steve Wright
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Re: Providence Cyclocross Festival - 10/10/2009 and 10/11/2009

Post by Steve Wright »

SO glad they brought this race back. Definitely one of the best courses and venues (except parking) around.

After last weekend suck fest for me I had very little expectations going into this race. I was questioning everything at this point, my fitness, my desire, my skills and ability, it was just not looking good. Despite my 3rd row call up I decided to take it easy at the start and try to settle into about 50th going into the holeshot. I figured I'd feel better about myself if I started in 50th and ended around 50th rather than starting in 20th and ending in 60th (getting passed all race sucks). I probably shouldve warned Dave P about this before because he made the mistake of lining up behind me. I went from 30th to somewhere between 65th and 80th by the time we got to the holeshot. It was a lot worse than planned... Cookie somehow went from about 80th to 30th though! By the time I clipped in he was 5 bike lengths up the road!! I followed Dave around for the first half lap and stayed out of trouble. Half way through I picked it up a bit but was careful not to burn too many matches... I wanted to have some for the end. At that same point on the next lap I realized that I had actually gained on the people fighting for 5th place! At this point I was hanging around 60th-65th probably and decided to see what I could do. I felt absolutely amazing from that point on and was just blowing through the field feeling good about myself. And thats good, and as Brad would say, good is what we want. The cheers from the MRC crowd definitely helped. I somehow ended up with the best result of my life with a 20th place, JUST missing out on catching 2 more guys. Another lap and who knows... But I couldn't have been happier with how it went. SO FUN.

Warming up sunday did NOT seem like it was going to be my day. It was WAY to technical for me and not lots of room to pass. I decided to take the same approach and start easy (but not too easy thanks to Rob's advice that saved me from getting stuck behind a huge bottleneck in the first turns). This time I went from my 3rd row start to about 45th-50th going into the holeshot, definitely a little better. I stayed there until there downhill 180 that people were trying to ride on lap one? dunno why? and I passed about 10 guys right there but dismounting early and running it. Things were starting to spread out quickly so I didn't wanna go too easy, but i definitely didn't go too hard. On lap 2 I began passing people again!?!?! I was passing people on the turns too!?! It was unreal. I felt amazing on all the corners and turns. Similar to saturday I was working my way through the field (but not NEARLY as fast) and finally got into a group of what people were telling us was 25th-29th. With 2 to go I decided to try to get away, hit a couple turns hard and attacked out of them. One guy came with me and we were off. We were able to work well together and pick a bunch of guys off on the last couple of laps. With 1/2 a lap to go I caught sight of Doug and did everything I could to catch him. In the process I was able to pick off a few more people but he was too fast for me. He got me at the line by a couple seconds. He had an awesome race and was top 15 for the majority of it. We came in in 18th and 19th, so definitely my best result ever, but I still think Saturday was my best race ever. No complaining here.

Overall it was a good change from the way things had been going. I couldn't be happier with the way I raced and had all sorts of fun all weekend. It looked like MRC had great results in all the races that we were represented in. Thanks for all the cheers, looking forward to our race next sunday.
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michaelcole
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Re: Providence Cyclocross Festival - 10/10/2009 and 10/11/2009

Post by michaelcole »

My summary.
My mechanic is soooo fired. He keeps handing me a bike on raceday that is obviosly not raceworthy. Saturday the tire pressure was too low for the conditions and I flatted at the beginning of lap 3. Had to roll/run for half a lap ,while being passed by everybody, to get to the pit. Then my mechanic was halfway through the wheel change when he realized that he was putting on someone elses wheel. Off with that wheel and we start over. What seemed like 5 minutes later and having been passed by about 30 more guys I exit the pit in full on chase mode. Did the next 2.5 laps at a better pace than the first laps. Regained a few spots. But still ended up almost 50th.
Sunday
Started off ok. Further back than Saturday but was moving up well untill I dropped my chain and couldn't shift it back on. Moved up a little closer to where I had been and then lost my chain again. All totaled there were six chain incidents. Four of them required a dismount and a manual replacement. Each time I lost several spots and was able to gain back about half of what I had lost before dropping the chain again. I ended up 44th but I think that without the mechanicals I might have been in the low to mid 20's.
Over the two days I figure that my mechanic cost me about 30 to 40 spots.
Maybe the next time I race I,ll have better luck with the machine and mthe limiting factor will be the engine.
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chindogu
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Re: Providence Cyclocross Festival - 10/10/2009 and 10/11/2009

Post by chindogu »

Yes, I raced both days. After each day, we ended up at Louie's Restaurant near Brown University. At the start, I positioned myself at the table facing the wall menu. The chair cushion could of used a bit more air, but given the conditions I'm glad I went with the brown vinyl. The waiter took my order and a short time later, a 3x3x3 showed at the table (3 eggs, 3 pancakes, 3 meat things). I ditched the meat sticks as every ounce counts! Cruised through the eggs and was about to hit the hashbrowns when I noticed that my buddy was already on to his flapjacks. Damn. Felt like dropping out at that point and kept looking down at my chair to see if the cushion flatted but no, I was just hurting. On the next course, I focused on a steady fork to mouth motion and gradually made up time on the pancakes. All the training at the Green Anvil paid off! Still, I finished right behind my buddy but felt good about the effort I put in.
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Re: Providence Cyclocross Festival - 10/10/2009 and 10/11/2009

Post by RPerson »

First off, Lowry... outstanding report ;)

I only raced Saturday and all I can say is that my mechanic will be hitting the unemployment line with Coley's. I got an acceptable start and was on the forward march when I dropped my chain at a completely random spot and got it jammed under the third eye. 25-30 lost spots later I got it back on, but was pretty deflated. I opted for pushing my luck with the third eye moved out of the way and lost that bet with another dropped chain just after the barriers (and pit). Grabbed my pit bike and then proceeded to pull a spoke right through the flange that holds it on the rear wheel. Back to the pits again and now I was just "racing" to stay on the lead lap. I put in an all out sprint up the finish road even though I had wrapped up a solid DFL to get a few charity cheers from the crowd. The IPA's were cold and the deals at the Kenda truck were sweet so I managed to gain back a little positive mojo at the end of the day. Great to see the crowd out there.
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Rob
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Re: Providence Cyclocross Festival - 10/10/2009 and 10/11/2009

Post by Rob »

@lowry, I was rooting for you, specially on the pancake section. tough lost

@goguen, tough weekend out there, but your boys are tough.

now that the 2s are force to race up, it does make the jump from 4 to 3 a lot smoother.
last year the size of the 4 fields were out of control, 4 didn't want to upgrade to get lapped in the 2/3.
i don't have a solution for verge, there aren't enough hours in a day...

one suggestion, non-verge races can do away with the masters elite.
there is no need to have 2 elite fields in small races (master would still take it)

so non verge could have
cat 4
cat 3/4 master
cat3/2
cat1/2

just thinking out loud.
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Doran Abel
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Re: Providence Cyclocross Festival - 10/10/2009 and 10/11/2009

Post by Doran Abel »

I thought I would throw in a report for the cross newbies and learners. I raced the Cat 4 35+ with the MRC gang mentioned above, but only on Sat. (raced at Jamestown on Mon.). This was my 4th cross race and 1st on a cross bike. I started about 50th or so with no plans to start higher or shoot any holes on the first lap. My plan was to just finish and to try to pick a few people off who quit or tire. And I succeeded in that at least - at 43rd, I think. I avoided the start drag crash (paved area) then proceeded to do fairly well in the straights and power sections and very poorly in the technical sections. I was (sort of) dueling it out with a couple of guys in the back. I would get ahead of them on the straights, then make a mistake or fall down on the technical rollers (what did they call that the strawberry boll or something?) - once almost hitting a tree. I felt like I was flopping all over by the end. I powered up the final paved slope to at least beat the guy I was riding with - even though I can't sprint either. I think there were 8 - 10 who finished behind me, not including the DNFers.

Lessons learned - I need more work on the technical riding, maybe some MTB would help me too. My fitness felt reasonable. I can't blame anything on mech problems, just the operator. My used Cannondale cross rig did ok. Very difficult course, but a good experience. I ran about 40+ psi in my clinchers - seemed about right and did not flat. May need some advice on tire selection in the future.
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taudep
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Re: Providence Cyclocross Festival - 10/10/2009 and 10/11/2009

Post by taudep »

Even though the Providence race was last week. I'm just now posting the rest of my photos (non-Elite race stuff):

http://doublehop.blogspot.com/2009/10/p ... 9-day.html
I'm 20PoundSkull at cyclowhat.com.
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